


Room 101

by bookscorpion



Series: Changing of the Light [10]
Category: Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Genre: Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Psychological Torture, Torture, Whump, stress position
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 14:16:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17225594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookscorpion/pseuds/bookscorpion
Summary: Duncan gets captured and has nothing to look forward to than torture and death, but even worse things happen.This is a companion piece and very definitely AU to my longficOut of the Shadows. The only thing you really need to know is that Duncan is in an established relationship here with Rhys, a shaman and shadowrunner.





	Room 101

Duncan's hands had been cuffed on his back and then pulled upwards on a chain. It forced him to bend over, his head almost level with his knees. The cuffs cut deeply into his wrists. Every movement he made put stress on either his leg muscles or his arms and there was no way to relieve it. It had become uncomfortable after five minutes, painful after thirty. By now, it was torture.

Breathing was difficult at best, he couldn't fill his lungs without raising his upper body. That put more strain on his arms and shoulders, causing cramps he couldn't breathe through. After a time, he didn't try any longer. The fear of suffocating was a constant background noise in his mind.

When his arms had gone numb, he had been grateful, for a short time. Then he had moved, trying to lessen the deep ache in his legs, and they had come back to life. A thousand pinpricks had bitten into his flesh and he had cried out for the first time. It had been minutes before it became bearable again. After that, he had tried to stay in a position that kept the blood flowing in both his arms and his legs, but it was an endless, conscious balancing act.

He didn't have the strength to keep it up any longer. His whole body was numb, except for the parts that were screaming in agony. Every movement that relieved the pain in one limb made it worse in another, the muscles cramping and stiff. Duncan had been tased a couple of times in his life and this was exactly like it, except it wasn't over after a few seconds. This kept happening.

He didn't know how long he had been kept like this. At some point, he had fallen asleep and lost his balance, almost dislocating his shoulders. His legs had refused to work, putting his full weight on his arms. He had screamed himself hoarse with the pain then, even after he had gotten on his feet again. 

No-one had come to question him and no-one would. The man they had been hired to rob had a certain reputation and if there was any truth to it, Duncan would never see anything else but the inside of this cell again. No windows, tiled walls, tiled floor with a grate. Easy to clean.

The only thing he hoped for was that Rhys had been able to get away. When Duncan had gone down, he had seen Rhys run from the guards, his spirit bear in a fight with an ifrit. What had happened after that, he didn't know. The next thing he could remember was waking up on his knees, already cuffed and in the cell. As soon as he was barely conscious, he had been put in this position and left alone.

Once, someone had come in. Duncan had been given water and a kick to his knee when he tried to talk to his captor. His legs had gone out from under him immediately. The pain had been so bad, he had thrown up all of the water again. Trying to get up on his feet again, not able to raise his head, it had been like drowning. Water had filled his mouth and nose in a surge. Coughing and gagging, he had fought for air, swallowed vomit and spit and snot. The taste of bile was still burning his throat.

Most of the time, he was in a daze of pain and exhaustion. Sleep wasn't possible except the few seconds he could snatch that made him just more tired.

He jerked awake from one of those moments of sleep when the door to his cell was opened. With his head forced down, he didn't get much of a look at the people who came in. Boots and blood-spattered trousers. A body being dragged between them, dropped directly in front of him where he _could_ see.

Rhys.

Duncan had no voice left to call out, to yell at the guards that they need to help Rhys. That they could kill and torture him, but to leave Rhys out of this. They left without a word. 

Blood covered Rhys’ face. Blood was soaking his torn clothes. Blood started to pool under him immediately. Someone had taken a knife to him, methodically. Deep wounds were visible all over his body. Bones shimmered white through the blood. In the tiny cell, his laboured breathing was loud, a wet gurgle in every breath. His lungs were filling with blood and he was suffocating. In the long pauses between one breath and the next, the slow drip of blood down the drain in the floor filled the silence.

Duncan could just watch. From somewhere, he found the strength to pull on the cuffs until blood was running from his wrists. 

'Rhys! Rhys, damn it, wake up! You can heal yourself and then we get out of here. Come on, you can do it! Please! Please, wake up, Rhys...' With his voice gone, a whisper was all he had. Tears ran down his face and dropped into the blood. It swallowed them up without a trace.

Suddenly, Rhys gasped for air, his body jerking. His hands clawed at the floor, fingernails scratching over tiles. Looking directly at Duncan, pain and fear in his eyes, Rhys reached for him with one hand. With a final spasm that lifted his whole body off the floor for a second, he lay still. The next breath didn't come.

'No!' Duncan shook his head, refusing to believe it. But Rhys' lifeless eyes told him the truth. 'No, please, no. Rhys, please...' Blood was still dripping into the drain, a tiny, quiet, deafening sound. Duncan would have screamed if he had been able to. As it was, all he could do was close his eyes and whisper his denial to himself. He was still doing it when they came for him.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a [whump prompt](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/333664) on [Crichtonsangel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crichtonsangel)'s [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/blueeyesnwhump)
> 
> I did not actually _plan_ to kill Rhys here, but once I got into the story, there was no way around it. I'm sorry...  
> But man, this got punted into AU territory in my own mind so hard and fast, it achieved light speed on the way. No way I'm doing this to Duncan for real. ...I still had so much fun writing it.


End file.
